Panel 2: Corporate governance issues

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law, 2003 by Peterson, Peter, Foster, John (Neel), Colon, Jeffrey

PROFESSOR RECHTSCHAFFEN: We are very honored to have Secretary Peterson here.

I am particularly honored to have Dean Treanor with us today, the Dean of my Law School, the Dean of the Law School where I went, the Dean of the Law School where I teach. he is going to introduce the rest of the program on corporate governance, including the panel with secretary Peterson and Governor Bies's keynote address.

With that, I turn it over to the Dean of the Fordham University School of Law, Dean William Treanor.

DEAN TREANOR: Thanks very much, Professor Rechtschaffen.

Welcome, on behalf of the entire Law School community. I am here to welcome you to the International Symposium on Risk Management and Derivatives, which addresses the critical issues of corporate governance and responsibility.

I would like to thank all the distinguished panelists that we have today. If you look at the program brochure, it is a remarkable group. It is a congregation of people who are outstanding leaders in the field.

I would also like to extend a special welcome to the Symposium's keynote speaker, Governor Susan Schmidt Bies of the Federal Reserve System. Thank you very much for coming.

And I would like to recognize the chairs of the Symposium's various panels: Professor Steven Raymar of the Fordham School of Business-thank you for chairing a panel, Professor Raymar; the Honorable Peter Peterson, Chair of the Blackstone Group and Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who will be presiding over this panel; and Howard Rubenstein, President of Rubenstein Associates, Inc.

In addition, I would like to thank Professor Carl Felsenfeld of our faculty, who directs the Fordham Institute on Law and Financial Services; Professor Jill Fisch, who directs the Fordham Center for Corporate, Securities, and Financial Law; and especially Professor Alan Rechtschaffen, who is the Symposium Chair and a member of our adjunct faculty. He originally envisioned the need for a conference like this seven years ago and has worked tirelessly since then to make this vision a reality.

The topics addressed by our distinguished panelists include accounting, corporate governance, and public relations, areas which have always been fundamental to the world of business and the world beyond. Today, as we all know, these topics are more important than ever, as the securities industry tries to bolster investor confidence in a system that has recently been under siege from without and from within.

The issues which our panelists address today are equally important both to the financial industry and to the average citizen. Never before in our nation's history have so many members of the public been so invested in capital markets, and perhaps not since the Great Depression have so many individuals lost as much trust in the ability of the corporate and financial world to keep its own house in order.

The dialogue that is presented today is an important step in addressing the critical issues that will continue to challenge the business community in the days and years to come.

Again, I thank all of you for sharing your time and your talent on these issues of national significance, and I wish you a very successful Symposium.

Now I would like to introduce the panel on corporate governance issues.

The Panel Chair is the Honorable Peter Peterson, who is one of the best-known and most influential leaders in the business community of our time. In addition to currently serving as Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, he is also Chair of the Blackstone Group, a private investment firm, which he co-founded in 1985, and a Director of Sirius Satellite Radio.

Mr. Peterson served as Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers from 1973-1977, and after the merger with Kuhn, Loeb served as Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers, Kuhn, Loeb until 1984. Mr. Peterson is currently Chair of the Council on Foreign Relations and he is Founding Chairman of the Institute for International Economics. He is a former United States Secretary of Commerce and Chairman of the National Commission on Productivity during the Nixon Administration, and under President Gerald Ford he chaired the Quadrennial Commission on Executive, Legislative and Judicial Salaries.

Mr. Peterson has been named by the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce as one of the "Ten Outstanding Men" in the nation. Very early in his career, in 1972, he was named as one of the "Most Important Americans Under Forty," a recognition whose accuracy would be proven time and time again over a long, distinguished career in the public and private sectors.

An author of numerous influential publications on economics, Mr. Peterson is a summa cum laude graduate of Northwestern University and holds an MBA with Honors from the University of Chicago. He also holds honorary doctorates from a number of universities, including his Alma Mater Northwestern.

Our panelists today are John "Neel" Foster, who is a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board and a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council; and Professor Jeffrey Colon of our faculty.